GC/MS and GC/FTIR as Powerful Tools for Identifying Bioactive Compounds

Amphetamine-type stimulants (ATS) are a group of substances, mostly synthetic in origin, that generally stimulate the central nervous system. Chemical modification of their molecular structure results in a practically unlimited number of pharmacologically active compounds, some of which are more potent stimulants than others. The gas chromatography combined with mass spectrometry (GC/MS) and, more recently gas chromatography combined with Fourier transform infrared spectrometry (GC/FTIR) have made a substantial contribution in the identification of drugs abuse in clinical and forensic toxicology. In this paper, we have analyzed some of the most popular stimulant amphetamines by the GC/MS and GC/FTIR techniques. We have found that the most characteristic fragment ions for the stimulant amphetamines are phenyl (m/z = 77), benzyl (m/z = 91), cyclopentadienyl (m/z = 65) and cyclopropenyl (m/z = 39) cations. The GC/FTIR technique allows us to 2 S. Gosav and R. Dinica characterize the isomers of studied chemical compounds, and thus to distinguish between compounds with the same molecular structure, but with different biological activity.